HN user
As someone who moved to the UK I find it crazy that 2p machines exist. You put 2p in, and hope to get more out. It's literally child gambling. Where I come from we had arcades with tickets for stuff, but to me that's a whole different level to money in -> money out.
I still enjoy them though, but I enjoy gambling responsibly!
I've always said "I'm more interested in finding the right role, than I am in the salary, and I am sure we can come to an agreement if we feel it's a good fit". If they push further than that, I ask what sort of range they are looking at to make sure we're broadly aligned and not wasting each others time.
While generally I've had great success with negotiating salaries (in multiple cases more than 10%, in one case more than 20%), I have had a company rescind an offer when I indicated their offer was lower than the range I was hoping for. Ironically, I was going to take the job at their original offered rate as their cause was well aligned with my morals and values and I was excited to work for them, but they decided that because they couldn't hit the range I wanted, they assumed I was just going to leave.
It all felt off to me - it should be the candidates job to accept or not, rather than for the company to make that assumption.
Doing a lot of hiring now, I always offer as close to or above the top of the range the candidate is looking for if possible, and definitely have pushed that up outside our budget when we stumble across great candidates. I want to build a team that sticks around, not just have people hopping every 18 months.